NBC New York (Melissa Russo)Tier 2
Backfill: Hochul one-on-one with NBC New York; $36M victim-services money followed News 4 reporting on unexpected cuts
In a one-on-one with Melissa Russo (aired Aug. 28), Hochul discussed Blakeman and Trump's Lake Ontario renaming order. Accountability context for the tracker: NBC frames the $36M victim-services announcement as coming AFTER News 4 reported unexpected cuts that jeopardized services for crime victims and sexual assault survivors, including children — i.e., the funding restored money to programs already disrupted, rather than expanding them unprompted.
Related fact-checks
"There were no deaths at the hands of ICE in Nassau County." — Bruce Blakeman, Capital Tonight, Aug 26, 2026Half True"Our electric bills are 70% higher than the national average." — Bruce Blakeman, Livingston County GOP rally, Avon, reported Aug 19, 2026Half TrueBlakeman: New York spends "an estimated $8 billion in taxpayer money" on services for people in the country illegally, "roughly $81,000 in benefits per person"Mostly False
More on campaign
Fingerlakes1.com (from Hochul campaign release) · Sep 14, 2026NYS Building & Construction Trades Council (235,000 members) endorses Hochul for re-election; LaBarbera cites construction, housing and energy-project policies, Hochul points to offshore wind, Gateway, upstate chips and housingNew York Post (Carl Campanile, Matt Troutman) · Sep 13, 2026Bonnie Lautenberg, widow of Sen. Frank Lautenberg and a $1,000 Hochul donor in July 2025, confirms she is holding a Hamptons fundraiser for Blakeman: "Bruce is a longtime friend and neighbor"Buffalo News (photo gallery); Fingerlakes1 advisory · Sep 13, 2026"The Cost of Bruce Blakeman" tour reaches Western New York: LG nominee Adrienne Adams, Rep. Tim Kennedy and Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan launch a canvass at CWA Local 1168 headquarters in Amherst on Sept. 12, the state Democratic Committee's pitch that Blakeman's record would raise costs and property taxesSpectrum News NY1 (Bernadette Hogan) · Sep 12, 2026NY1 on the ceremony's politics: Hochul stood with Cuomo and de Blasio, Vance embraced Giuliani and Bloomberg, 9/11 widow Terry Strada used the podium to attack Saudi protection "administration after administration," and Blakeman attended to honor his nephew, court officer Thomas Jurgens
Source: NBC New York (Melissa Russo) · Aug 31, 2026 · Credibility Tier 2 · Permalink https://reviewhochul.com/news/hochul-nbc-one-on-one-victim-services-context-2026-08-28
ReviewHochul aggregates and contextualizes published reporting. This page links to the original source; it is not a substitute for it.